Your Resume is Your Friend

I used to suffer from an extreme case of resume dread. I would delay starting my job search for months because I hated the thought of rewriting my resume. Looking back on it I wonder why it was so stressful. For some reason it seemed really difficult to think about what I’d been doing on the job. When I tried to think of what I’d done, I couldn’t focus on anything that sounded interesting.

On rare occasions when I got a new position I’d update my resume as I went along, adding accomplishments and new responsibilities. It makes it easier if your resume remains a work in progress. The problem is that most of the time it’s easier to put off making the updates. As long as you don’t need your resume it’s easy to forget all about it. So when you really need it and it’s not ready, the stress begins.

These days I get paid to work on other people’s resumes – which is much easier than working on my own. Unfortunately I usually don’t get asked to work on the resume until the person has either lost their job (and desperately needs to look for a new one) or their resume has been submitted multiple times and they’ve received no response.

If you give yourself time to do it properly, you can avoid the stress. You can also avoid the problems that a lot of resumes have when people rush to complete them – such as spelling and grammar errors and bad formatting. A good resume is especially necessary for the career changer. You have to show your skills as transferable to your new career. If you resume is unprofessional, you’re just giving the hiring manager (or resume screener) one more reason to reject it.